A little break between posts, as this week has been a 60hr one . Still got some riding in, thursday morning i headed out on a bunch ride and got in 70k in 2:12 before work which i was pretty pleased with. Especially as working 13hrs Wednesday then waking up at 3.30am the next morning to drive to Noosa for the ride was pretty tough.

With the workload this week i haven't been able to line up the massage therapist (one my brother recommended to me), should have no problems getting that to happen next week though.

This morning i rode in to work (the short way, from Coolum) on the Apollo and it is utterly extraordinary. I simply cannot conceive any bike being smoother and faster than this thing, it is BLISS to ride! Put in a great time for the 25k, averaged 34.8kmh . Can't wait to ride back just to feel that incredible ride again. Definitely using it for the bunch ride tomorrow morning, and i'm even contemplating relegating the Scott and using the steely for racing. Happy Days .

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

The ride home was a tough one, with a solid headwind all the way. And the BB bearings are on their way out, so no chance of using the Apollo for tomorrow morning's ride. Should be good if the weather holds out though.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

With the lovely Queensland weather this week i haven't been able to do any riding until this afternoon, hopped on the singlespeed to go to the next town and see if i was still flooded in (turns out the road had only just been reopened). Over the range and back, 28k all up at an average of 31.7kmh, VERY pleased with that. Realised i need to ride the SS a lot more often to improve my spinning, a little bit of tightness in my legs wouldn't have helped but i've never been able to spin very fast. Absolutely no trouble from the knees though which was good. I really enjoyed riding this bike (1986 Dawes Shadow) the gearing (46x16) lets it really hum along on the flat, though when i built it i didn't check the fit before finishing things and the stem is way too long. I'm going to bite the bullet and take off the bar tape and brakes to swap it before i ride it again, once it fits me properly it should be an absolute ripper.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Managed to pick a break in betweent the rain to get out on the Dawes for a very short spin. 22k at an average of 35.2, would have been significantly better but for a headwind coming back. Absolutely loving this bike, i don't know if it's the deep Vs or some singlespeed magic but it sits in the high 30s-low 40s more easily than anything else i have, very nice feeling.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

This morning i was really keen to go for a ride, so i woke up bright and early and hopped on the computer to check the radar. Seeing a big patch of clear sky appearing i decided to brave the light rain for the start of the ride, after all it would stop soon. Not on your life! I didn't get so much as a second without rain, and had to keep my spirits up by saying 'Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Roubaix' over and over again .

At one point not long into the ride i was muttering to myself about my shoes being wet from the spray off my front tire, when i rode through a puddle and my entire lower half got drenched, just had to laugh. That and looking down at the gorgeous anodized blue spokes on the front wheel spinning around always makes me feel better. So the ride this morning from Coolum to Mooloolaba and back was 45k at an average of 32.4, most of the ride i was sitting on 34-5, topping at 49 for a sprint near the end (couldn't quite crack 50) but hit a fair few red lights in Maroochy which slowed things down. Really enjoyed it and i'm now looking to do a group ride sunday morning on the Dawes just for giggles.

I took this at Mooloolaba just to show the beautiful Sunshine Coast weather .

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

our weather has been like that for a month or more...only difference is I am wearing 5 layers instead of sleeveless!...and looking at next weeks forecast they are saying -5c maximum...grrr. Rain doesn't stop me... being sick twice in two weeks does!. The hardest part of riding in the rain is actually the part when you are still dry and sitting inside deciding if you should head out or not .

It wasn't easy to wake up this morning after less than 4 hours sleep but i was absolutely determined to finally do a Sunday bunch ride. As it happened the 'bunch' was just myself and cotterpin, and off we went. The weather wasn't too crook (especially compared to what TLL is blessed with!) and the company was great. Put in 76k at an average of 32.8, which would be acceptable to me on a geared bike, on the Dawes on a rolling route i was very pleased, especially with how good i felt when i finished. Cotterpin and i parted ways at Hastings St and i continued back to the river, even after 70odd k i was able to spin it up and sit on 40 along Noosa Parade which put a big smile on my face .

So all in all, a great morning.

My Dawes and Cotterpin's Beretto at Noosa Main Beach.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Letting a little rain put you off, for shame duds! Fair enough though, i have been 'meaning to' go for a bunch ride with you lot for about a year now. Will definitely be a regular from now on though . A different steely every week perhaps lol.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Tuesday i did the long commute on the steel Apollo, my legs weren't 100% and i really felt the extra weight that bike carries, but rode reasonably well all the same.

Wednesday i had to take the Dawes into the shop to get the BB checked out, so drove.

This morning i got up at 3:30 (yes it hurt) to drive down to Noosa for a group ride. About 15 turned up, only 4 or 5 of whom were on road bikes, the rest on some seriously schmicko TT/tri bikes (BMC Time Machine anyone?) Going to Cooroy i was somewhat surprised at the pace, sitting in the mid 30s? I had been expecting to be on the limiter sitting in the mid to high 40s, so coming into Cooroy i was itching to feel the burn so took off down the hill into town. Well off i went and soon they were out of sight, that's when i realised i didn't actually know which way they were going to go out of town towards the hills, so had to stop and wait for them. Boy did i feel a right pillock.

Hopped back on and went fine up the climb over Black Mountain, through Pomona to Cootharaba, all good on that climb, and in a BIG change from the last Thursday group ride i did, was reasonably confident on the quick downhills that follow (max somewhere around 80). Going into Boreen Point the group was going very slowly, only 30ish. i was wondering what on earth they were up to, surely people on the aforementioned BMC, a Scott Foil, Addict, super fancy Trek etc wouldn't be out of legs after only 50k, we rounded the last corner before the township at walking pace and ahead i saw another group turning around at the other end of the street. 'Ah ha' says I, 'that must be the turn around point'. So off i went, turned around and see that the group i had been with had turned at the start of the street and had bolted! I took off after them but they were sitting on about mid to high 40s and i couldn't quite get on, as soon as a gap opened up that was it and i rode into Noosa solo.

So 2 big lessons hopefully learned today, one is 'stay with the group' (something i should DEFINITELY know by now ) and two is, pay attention to the other riders, and when they do something weird, THINK about it! I spent the first half of the day kicking myself and rueing my poor judgement, until i was able to accept that i had learned a lesson, and gained valuable experience. Which of course is exactly the reason i went to all that effort to go on a group ride . That and pushing myself, and with 74k at 32.8av with an av HR of 155, i think that is adequately pushed.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Today i did the short commute on the Scott, lovely weather and the legs felt very good, managed 46:10 for the 25k up the coast, a little way off my pb but still very satisfying. Encountered a minor hiccup when i went to the fridge in the lunchroom and instead of finding the ingredients for a couple of cheese and tomatoe toasted sandwiches, all i had was 3 cheese slices and 2 small chocolate bikkies. Poor sustenance for a hungry cyclist with 30k still to do! It occurred to me that i could stop off at a cafe somewhere and get a meat pie and some black gold (coke ), until i realised that i had left my wallet at home .

So out of necessity the ride back was at recovery pace, and was actually fairly enjoyable, variable headwind notwithstanding.

Tomorrow morning was to be a ~140k ride with a group but i have to go to brisbane to buy some goats. Now how's that for an excuse! Disappointing though, especially as my ride today has me sitting on 981k for the year so far, just short!

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Well that was an interesting weekend. With the way things worked out, i had only 2.5hrs to clear 1.5mtr high grass and the remains of an old mesh fence for a 200m2 pen, and put up new mesh. Spectacularly good cross training, flailing at the grass with the brush hook, line trimmer and push mower, ripping out the old mesh with as much brute force as i could muster and running about like a chook with it's head cut off, all in 30+degree heat. All went well and i now have 4 very happy little goats .

On finishing work this arvo i had another 2 hrs of mowing, and have decided that for the rest of the week i will forgo commuting and instead do dedicated training rides in the mornings (concentrating on hill repeats) and mowing/yard work in the afternoons. I'm expecting this will be a more efficient way of going about things, it will be interesting to see how the week progresses.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Unfortunately circumstances have conspired to keep me off the bike until this morning, up at 3:30 to go to Noosa for the bunch ride. Today my goal was very straight forward, stay with the group and keep my eyes open. The first one wasn't as easy as i thought, from the get go the group was going much faster than last week, and my legs were really feeling the lack of use this week. I got dropped on all 3 of the main climbs of the ride but just managed to hold on. At about the 45k mark i grabbed the gel from my pocket, deciding i needed all the help i could get to hang on for the final flat, fast 20k into Noosa. I've never previously noticed any benefit from gel but on this occasion within a few minutes i could feel my legs getting a little better. I went very well for the next 10k or so, and then saw the fast group (mostly on super expensive TT bikes) coming up from behind like a breaking wave (how they ended up behind me i have no idea as we rolled into Boreen Point together and i thought they had gone out in front heading back to noosa). As the first few rocketed past i gathered up my petticoats and hauled myself up from 32 to 51kmh, and was JUST able to get into the line. Barely 2 kilometres later though i had to drop off, i just couldn't take the pace. Very definitely a challenge i want to take up though, and i still did 70k at an av of 34.2kmh.

On a BIG plus, i got my Dawes back from the shop yesterday arvo, removed the nasty original freewheel and just need to pop on the replacement (as soon as i remember where i put it ). Hoping to get it done tonight for a bit of a spin tomorrow morning.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

A ripper of a day today, up at 3:30 to ride from Coolum to Noosa for a group ride. Even allowing for the fact it was 4am on a sunday i was very surprised by how few cars i saw, so much so that i counted every one i saw on the way to Noosa, only 32 in nearly an hour! When i met up with the others (duds and spinner among them) it was decided to do the same route as the Thursday morning bunch ride takes, but in reverse. This meant some very steep hills, and i was on the Dawes! I managed reasonably well for the most part, though there were 2 climbs that i just couldn't manage and had to walk, 46x16 is not the easiest gear when the road goes up. When we reached Cooroy i had to part ways due to time constraints, and headed for Yandina, managed the 19k from Cooroy to Yandina in a little over half an hour . It will be interesting to see how much riding i can fit in over the next week with the amount of farm work i will have to get done.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Because it's pretty mainly . On the road i quite like riding singlespeed, i definitely wouldn't say i love it, but it can be fun. And of course it makes things harder, and no-one ever got faster or stronger by being comfortable .

With my Scott getting towards being unrideable due to the godawful noise from the knackered BB (Another week or two and i'll have enough saved to get a new ultegra group, and maybe the RS80s i've been wanting ), it looks like the old Apollo Concorde will have to step into the breech. Tomorrow morning i'm going to try and get some hill repeats in before work (no riding after work as Valentines Day means i MUST spend the evening with my girlfriend, no ifs or buts) which will be fine, after all doesn't the old saying go 'train heavy race light'? What will be interesting is if i will be able to hang onto the Thursday morning bunch with it, hmm.

PS, TLL i've been meaning to ask, after doing the above mentioned bunch ride a couple of times, and noticing that they have a pattern of going reasonably quickly for the first 3/4s of the ride, and absolutely hell for leather for the last, i'm wondering if this is the way most races tend to happen? If so i definitely need a lot more ks in the legs, as by about 80k i'm starting to fade quite a bit.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Getting going at 5 this morning was particularly difficult, but the little voice in my head was very insistent. Damn goody two shoes voice. So off i went to Noosa, rode the Apollo over to Tinbeerwah and charged up. There were a few other riders around, which gave me some rabbits to chase. My first run up was 7:02, second effort 7:10 and on the 3rd go i managed 6:58 (went out a bit too hard, dropped off for the middle and then pushed hard enough to feel a bit queasy towards the top). Given my pb on the Scott is 6:48, and the Apollo weighs more than a stretch Hummer, i'm quite pleased with that time .

Very much unsure whether or not to use the Apollo for Thursday morning's ride, partly due to the weight but mostly because of the disconcerting (to say the least) flexing from the forks on fast corners, of which there are a few on that ride. Hmmm.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Most races I do (well it's been a while)...They start flat out until the break forms, and then they will either chase or let it go.Or if a break doesn't go they will slow down after people realize they are not going to get away... they are French so of course they will keep trying but it all depends on the course and the wind. Early season races here are echelon fests and reasonably flat... they get hillier as the season goes on. Team tactics play a big part here as the clubs aren't as big so you only have 4-8 riders from any one club in each grade and they will ride as a team and never chase a break with a team mate in it.If you are struggling later in the group ride then you need to raise your ftp, pure and simple. See the struggle as a good thing, group rides are usually too bloody easy and more social than proper training. Once they get too easy then spend all your time on the front. Once you start dropping everyone find a harder group . It is about more k's in the legs... but make sure they are not JRA!!!!.My club is old school (like most here I am sure)... base k's Dec/Jan/Feb in low gears... then build form once racing starts. That is working fine for me this year as I am struggling a bit in some of the faster rides. But two years ago before I put my back out I found them too slow and would get told off for spending too much time on the front driving hard. They also didn't do enough sprint training... but we have many more younger guys now so town sign sprints are happening more often .Keep stressing the engine!.

After Sundays ride we met up with one one of your Thursday bunch riders (Jezz from Venture Cycles) and if it is any consolation for your backing off, he said it was the fastest time the group had done for the ride.

That is a GREAT consolation!! . So long as i'm riding bikes that can be bought with one weeks wages or less, i'm not going to feel too bad about getting dropped by guys on $10,000+ rides. "It's not about the bike", pffftt don't be silly it's ALL about the bike lol.

I've been inspired by TLLs words (which would be summed up as HTFU if i read correctly? ) and will be doing tomorrow's ride on the Apollo, never going to know if i don't try .

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Sigh. I can't wait for summer to be over so i'm not working 6 days a week, i really need more sleep. This point amply demonstrated itself this morning when i set my alarm for 3:30 and woke up after 5 . So no bunch ride for the Apollo yet, but i was at least able to get in an hour of hard work. Rode over to the Kin Kin range, charged up it, went back down and then up again as fast as i could. Then over to the other side of town to a hill on my usual training loop, previously my goal has been to not drop below 30kmh, today i managed to keep over 34 the whole way . Completely blew up but it still counts haha.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

A wonderful day today! Up at 4 (okay so that part wasn't wonderful), drove to Pomona and then rode from there to Cooroy. Rode up the Black Mountain climb which forms part of the Thursday morning ride (reasonably hard work on the Scott with a 39-32, on the Apollo with 42 Biopace teeth going back to a 25 it was significantly more challenging), then down through Cudgerie to go back into Cooroy. Did that loop twice before heading back to Pomona, had a little bit of rain on the way to cooroy but otherwise great. The descent through Cudgerie should be fun, sweeping corners and a mostly smooth surface but my confidence is still shaky at best after my crashes (before my first big crash i did 80kmh on a MTB there) and the road was damp this morning which always gets me on edge. On the second run down though i felt a lot more settled, so perhaps this loop will be a good one to do regularly, not just for the climbing but to get more confident on descending. 43kms all up in a little less than 1:30 was ok. On getting back into Pomona i decided to go through the town to another short climb from the thursday ride, which meant i was able to go past my old workplace (and the workers sitting outside waiting for the siren to go) sitting on 50kmh, that felt good .

It all worked out perfectly, as i got back to Pomona just on 7, so popped the bike in the car and was then able to get lunch when the supermarket opened, and dawdle down to noosa for work.

Photo from the end of the ride .

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

That one is Mt Cooroora (there is a race held every year going from the middle of town to the top of the mountain and back, 430 odd metres high, about 1k out of town and the record for the race is about 21 minutes. My best was 43 btw). I will now make it my mission to get a similar pic of Black Mountain sometime next week, just for you .

Well today was bad. Woke up early intending to ride from Coolum to Mooloolaba and back, then through to Noosa for work. I was so tired from the early starts and work this week that i simply couldn't get on the bike for more than an hour, and when i finally did and set off, my legs were capable of working reasonably well, but my head wouldn't do the job of getting them going properly. Not enjoyable at all. And i know better than to let that happen, could see it coming but still didn't do anything to rectify it. Importantly though, it's a lesson learned, and i will get cracking on sorting it out (starting with sleeping in LATE tomorrow morning).

I've also reached a decision with the Scott, i'm going to grab myself a new 105 or Ultegra group for it (depending on finances), i know this frame and know how it will behave, a new frame can wait. So time for some 'sleep repeat sessions' .

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.